Learning handwriting in the digital age

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Dive Brief:

Ohio lawmakers have passed a bill charging the state Board of Education to create a cursive curriculum for K-5 students, according to a story from MyNDnow.

The goal is that all students will be able to print letters and words by the 3rd grade, and write in cursive by the end of 5th grade.

While not required, the class could be used by schools if they choose. The state board will decide whether or not to adopt the final model at the end of March 2019

Dive Insight:

Many children are now more adept today at typing on digital keyboards then using a pen or pencil to express their thoughts. Educators and stakeholders, however, often feel a responsibility to ground students in using these traditional tools — and perhaps for good reason.

Researchers discovered that students who took notes by hand — either in cursive or in print — held on to more information than if they just typed the details into a computer or mobile device, as Education Dive recently reported. In their 2014 study, “The Pen is Mightier Than the Keyboard,” authors noted that students using laptops actually did “worse on conceptual questions,” than their peers who wrote by hand.

As digital devices make their way into classrooms, curriculum instructors may want to consider whether offering handwriting instruction could help students with recall and retention, if not offering them a chance to master what may one day be a lost art.